The present invention relates to the field of devices for recovering wheeled vehicles, of the car or truck type.
It is known that a wheeled vehicle can become stuck in the ground. When the vehicle is stuck, at least one of its drive wheels slips and digs into the ground forming a rut into which it sinks. The rut presents the shape of an indentation formed in the ground. The wheel is then trapped at the bottom of the rut so that the vehicle is no longer able to move forwards.
A vehicle can become stuck in this way in sand or in mud. This is referred to as getting bogged down.
The vehicle recovery device of the invention thus makes it possible to recover a vehicle trapped in sand or mud, as the case may be.
In order to recover a vehicle, it is known to use rigid plates, made of plastic or of metal, that are placed in the rut under the drive wheel that is stuck. The wheel thus finds a support allowing it to run without slipping and to move forwards onto the plate, by means of which the vehicle can be freed from the rut.
A drawback of such a plate is its size. In order to overcome this problem, rigid plates are known that are constituted by several plate portions that are fastened to one another so as to make up the plate. Although such a recovery device is more compact, it presents in contrast the drawback of requiring assembly and disassembly times that are quite long. Furthermore, the plate is somewhat fragile. Finally, if the plate portions are not correctly cleaned after use, it may be difficult to re-assemble the plate, e.g., because of mud that is lodged between the plate portions.
Traction mats such as the mat proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,474 are also known. However, that type of mat, formed by rigid plates connected together by hinge-forming rings does not present flexibility that is sufficient for enabling the mat to slide into the rut effectively, underneath the stuck wheel. Furthermore, in practice, it should be observed that the transverse grip elements alone do not suffice to prevent the wheel from slipping and therefore do not suffice to guide the tire out of the rut. In addition, that mat is particularly inconvenient to transport.